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J W N Address at the Unveiling of 
/ I the Statue of Washington, upon 
y^ the Spot where he took the Oath 

as First President of the United States. 
Delivered 26th November, 1883, by 
George William Curtis. 



AN ADDRESS 



UNVEILING OF THE STATUE 



WASHINGTON. 



AN ADDRESS 



UNVEILING OF THE STATUE 



WASHINGTON 



UPON THE SPOT WHERE HE TOOK THE OATH AS FIRST 
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

/At 

Vf-3 



Delivered on the (25TH) 26th November, 1883, 

The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Evacuation of the City of 
New York by the British Army, 



BY 

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 



^ '"^/5» •' ' 



3 



NEW YORK : 

HARPER & BROTHERS 
1883. 






Printed by order of the Chamber of Commerce. 



NOTE 



The first Congress of the United States assembled 
in Federal Hall, in New York, on the 4th day of March, 
1789, but there was not a quorum present; and it was not 
until the 30th day of April following that the organization 
of the Government established under the Constitution was 
completed by the inauguration of Washington as President. 

To commemorate this event, the Chamber of Commerce 
of the State of New York, on the 21st of February, 1880, 
initiated a movement to erect a statue of Washington on 
the steps of the Sub-Treasury building, which stands upon 
the site formerly occupied by Federal Hall, on the corner 
of Wall and Nassau streets. The Honorable S. B, Chit- 
tenden, Representative in Congress, secured the necessary 
legislation to authorize the erection of the statue and its 
subsequent care by the United States. 

The services of the eminent sculptor, Mr. John Q. A. 
Ward, were engaged ; the model of a statue was submitted 
by him and approved by a committee of the Chamber; 
a subscription list was opened, and the necessary sum of 
money was contributed. 

The celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the 
evacuation of New York by the British army on the 25th of 
November, 1783, when General Washington entered the city, 



after its long occupation by hostile forces, was chosen as an 
appropriate time for the unveiling of the statue, its tender 
to the custody of the General Government, and its formal 
acceptance by the President of the United States. 

On Monday, the 26th of November, 1883, notwith- 
standing the drenching rain, a large number of persons 
assembled in Wall and Broad streets, and in the surrounding 
buildings. At the appointed hour, one o'clock, p. m., the 
President of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. George W. Lane, 
after a few appropriate words, introduced the Reverend R. 
S. Storrs, D. D., who offered a prayer: 



Almighty God, most merciful Father, who art the Author 
of our life and the Giver of every good and perfect gift : 

With reverence and humility we bow before Thine infinite 
majesty, remembering the fewness of our days, the littleness of 
our strength, and that our wisdom is but folly before Thee : 

With penitence we confess our many offenses, in selfishness 
and in pride committed against Thee; and we humbly supplicate 
Thy forgiveness, with the continual helps of Thy grace, which 
alone may keep us from sinning. 

Yet we come to Thee also with thanksgiving and praise, as 
mindful of the manifold and inestimable benefits which Thou 
hast bestowed upon us and our households: and we beseech 
Thee to accept the praises which in grateful adoration we offer 
before Thee. 

It hath pleased Thee, who doest according to Thy will in the 
army of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, to 
establish here a people for Thy praise, and to give it enlargement 
on every side. The handful of corn in the earth, on the top of 
the mountains. Thou hast made in the fruit thereof to shake 
like Lebanon, and them of the city to flourish hke grass of 
the earth. 

We thank Thee for Thy tender and sheltering favor shown 
to our fathers, in the day of their feebleness, and of their sore 
struggle. 

We thank Thee especially, on this day, for him whom Thou 
in Thy providence didst set forth to be leader of their armies 
and wisest of their counselors : whom Thou didst permit to see 



Thy pleasure prospering in his hand : and to whom thou hast 
given, in the nation which he succored, and in all the earth, a 
long renown. We thank Thee for the powers, of mind and 
spirit, and of influence over men, which Thou didst graciously 
commit unto him : that in the day of battle he was wise and 
patient, steadfast and victorious : that when peace had come, the 
people rested upon his words, and were guided by him into ways 
of justice, friendship, and freedom. And we pray that Thou will 
exalt his name, as a banner of strength for ourselves and our 
children, to the latest generation. 

We ask for Thy favor on those who are now, or who shall be 
hereafter rulers in our land : that they may be wise, faithful, and 
devout, ruling in justice and in the fear of the Lord; following 
him who was in his time to the people which honored him as the 
light of the morning when the sun ariseth, as the clear shining 
after rain. 

We ask for Thy blessing upon this city: that its officers may 
be peace, its exactors righteousness : that its people may dwell 
in peaceable habitations and in sure dweUings, and may never 
forget, amid the prosperity and luxury of their life, the service 
and the sacrifice of those going before, or that Divine goodness 
from which their unspeakable blessings have come. 

We pray for the Nation, of which we are part : that it may 
be ever exalted by righteousness, blessed and glad because God 
is its Lord. Thou hast increased it : be Thou glorified in it ! 
Thou hast brought it, in our years, out of fierce peril and pain. 
It called upon Thee in the day of trouble, and Thou didst 
deliver it. Thou hast made wars to cease within it : hast broken 
the bow, and cut in sunder the spear, and burned the chariot in 
the fire. Thou hast given it of the chief things of the ancient 
mountains and the precious things of the lasting hills : hast 
caused it to suck of the abundance of the seas, and hast filled it 
with the finest of the wheat. Perfect, O God, what Thou hast 
wrought for it ! May it sing praises to Thee, with understanding, 
and think of Thy loving-kindness in the midst of Thy temples ! 
And wilt Thou, who wast the God of our fathers, be our God also, 
and the God of this people, forever and ever ! 

We ask for Thy blessing on the Nation from which we have 
long been parted, but in whose keeping are the graves of our 
ancestors, and whose lines have gone out into all the earth. 
May its people serve Thee in faithful love, and rejoice in Thy 



8 



truth which maketh free. May Hs princes and nobles rule by 
wisdom, and equity be established by its judges. May those in 
authority seek the things which make for peace : and may she 
who sitteth on the throne of the kingdom have serenity in her 
age and continual affiance in Thee ! 

We remember before Thee the Nation which gave us friend- 
ship and aid in the day of our weakness ; with all the peoples 
from which have come to us in the following time courage and 
counsel and multiplied strength. And we pray that the blessing 
which maketh rich, and with which Thou addest no sorrow, may 
abide upon them all, henceforth and ever. 

Further Thy kingdom, we humbly beseech Thee, in all the 
earth ; and as Thou hast given to the children of men the blessed 
hope of eternal life, through the redemption that is in Christ, 
send forth of Thy grace upon those in high places, upon all who 
minister in Thy Name, upon all kindreds and families of man- 
kind : that Thy name may be known on the earth. Thy saving 
health among all nations. 

Grant now Thy blessing unto us here assembled; that 
that which we do may be for Thy praise : that we may with 
joy accomplish Thy will in our life on earth : that passing the 
grave and gate of death we may enter the City whose inhabitants 
go no more out, but in holy felicity see Thy face ! 

We ask all blessings, and offer all praises, in the Name of 
Thy Son, who hath taught us to pray, saying : Our Father, who 
art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name : Thy Kingdom come : 
Thy Will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this 
day our Daily Bread : and forgive us our Trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us. And lead us not into 
Temptation ; but deliver us from evil : for thine is the Kingdom, 
and the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



Mr. Royal Phelps, of the Committee of the Chamber of 
Commerce which had been charged with the care of erect- 
ing the statue, reported the complete fulfillment of the duties 
assigned them, and upon the conclusion of the report 
Governor Cleveland, of New York, unveiled the statue. 
The President of the United States was then introduced by 
Mr. Lane, and said : 



"Mr. President and Fellow-citizens: 

"It is fitting that other lips than mine should give voice to 
the sentiments of pride and patriotism which this occasion can- 
not fail to inspire in every heart. To myself has been assigned 
but a slight and formal part in the day's exercises, and I shall 
not exceed its becoming limits. I have come to this historic spot, 
where the first President of the Republic took oath to preserve, 
protect, and defend the Constitution, simply to accept in behalf 
of the Government this tribute to his memory. Long may the 
noble statue you have here set up stand where you have placed 
it — a monument alike to your own generosity and public spirit, 
and to the wisdom and virtue and genius of the immortal 
Washington." 

The address was then delivered by Mr. George William 
Curtis, after which the Right Reverend Henry C. Potter, 
D. D., Assistant Bishop of New York, pronounced the 
benediction. 

New York, December 15, 1883. 




ADDRESS 




HE great series of revolutionary 
centennial celebrations ends fitly 
upon this day and upon this spot. 
The momentous events that 
marked the opening, the culmination, and the 
close of the conflict, have been duly commemo- 
rated, and for eight years the full-stretched 
memory of the country, a harp of a thousand 
strings swept by patriotic emotion, has re- 
sounded with the heroic music of the revolu- 
tionary story. To-day the revolutionary story 
ends. At this hour, a hundred years ago, the 
last British sentry was withdrawn. The impe- 
rial standard of Great Britain fell at the fort 



12 

over which it had floated for a hundred and 
twenty years, and in its place the Stars and 
Stripes of American Independence flashed in 
the sun. Fleet and army, royal flag and scarlet 
uniform, coronet and ribbon, every sign and 
symbol of foreign authority, which from Con- 
cord to Saratoga, and from Saratoga to York- 
town, had sought to subdue the colonies, 
vanished from these shores. Colonial and pro- 
vincial America had ended ; national America 
had begun ; and after the lapse of a hundred 
years, the cradle song of the hope and promise 
of our national nativity is the triumphant psean 
of our matured power and assured prosperity ; 
glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, 
good will to men ! 

A more sorrowful departure history does not 
record. In that humiliating moment the fruit 
of the victories of the elder Pitt, which had 
girdled the globe with British glory and had 
supplied the pretext for taxing America, 
crumbled to ashes. The catastrophe was not- 
that an English army was vanquished ; it was 
that England was wounded. It was not a field 
lost ; it was an empire rent asunder. It was not 
a blunder of military strategy ; it was a moral 
miscalculation. As her wisest statesman had 



13 

predicted, England had fallen upon her own 
sword ; and she had drawn it against herself. 
In striking at her kindred in America, she struck 
at the political traditions, the immemorial rights, 
the jealous love of liberty, which are the heredi- 
tary pride of the English name ; and the rustic 
continentals who had defended those rights from 
Bunker Hill to Newburgh, and who returned 
hither on this day a hundred years ago, marched 
through these streets as they had marched 
to the battlefields of the revolution, keeping 
step to the steady drum-beat of Cromwell's 
Ironsides at Worcester and Dunbar, and win- 
ning at last as great a victory for the English- 
speaking race. But none the less the political 
separation of the two countries was complete. 
England had declined the greatest opportunity 
that was ever offered to a great nation, and 
America, panoplied in the mighty memories of 
her birthright, with the sturdy self-reliance of 
indomitable conviction and of conscious power, 
turned to carry forward as a new nation, under 
other conditions and through other institu- 
tions, the cardinal principles of constitutional 
liberty. 

This day, therefore, commemorates the end 
of the old order, and this spot the beginning of 



14 

the new. With the evacuation of New York 
monarchy ended ; with the inauguration of 
Washington the national republic began. The 
result, indeed, had been foretold by the course 
of events through all the colonial period, which 
culminated in the total overthrow of British 
power. The early New England confederations 
— the colonial leagues against Indian hostility 
— William Penn's suggestion of a provincial 
Congress — the military association for a com- 
mon interest and with a common impulse, 
in the old French and English wars — 
Franklin's scheme of union at Albany — 
the first doubt and distrust of British au- 
thority — the morning gun of revolution in 
Jonathan Mayhew's preaching — the thunder- 
burst of James Otis's plea against the writs of 
assistance — the keen and fatal logic of John 
Morin Scott in New York, with its plain fore- 
cast of separation — the fiery warning of Pat- 
rick Henry to the King — the massacre in State 
street — the Boston port-bill — the response of 
New York and Virginia — the Stamp Act Con- 
gress — and at last, following the shots on Lex- 
ington Green and the volley at Concord Bridge, 
the varying fortune and final triumph of the 
contest — all these, our renowned and glorious 



15 

traditions, immortal as the tale of Thermopylae 
and Plataea, of Sempach and Runnymede, re- 
vealed the common American heart and con- 
science, the essential and instinctive unity of 
the colonies ; and, surely and resistlessly as the 
revolution of the globe through the darkness 
of the night turns the continent to the morning, 
the progressive development of the colonies 
brought the great consummation of American 
national union, which consecrates this spot. 

But it was accomplished only after long and 
anxious and arduous controversy, with doubt 
and apprehension, and bitter hostility. The gen- 
eral joy that followed the evacuation of New 
York, the satisfaction with acknowledged inde- 
pendence, the glowing anticipation, the bound- 
less hope, were succeeded by the reaction that 
always follows prolonged exaltation of public 
feeling and devoted and self-sacrificing public 
exertion. The young giant, indeed, had con- 
quered, but his victory seemed to have cost him 
his life. Foreign authority had disappeared, but 
the country lay prostrate. 

In the midst of our civil war, by an exquisite 
stroke of diplomacy, the Secretary of State 
invited the ministers of foreign powers to a 
pleasure excursion through New York, that 



i6 

they might witness the unabated prosperity of 
a single State and report to Europe that, while 
the United States maintained a million of men 
in the field and upon the sea, there was no 
apparent diminution of population, no interrup- 
tion of industrial activities and ordinary pur- 
suits, and no visible drain upon seemingly 
exhaustless resources. But when the revolu- 
tion ended, commerce had perished, agriculture 
languished, and manufactures were stifled by 
foreign competition. The public debt was 
enormous, and private debt was universal. We 
have seen the stupendous burden of our civil 
war borne with cheerfulness, and regularly and 
continuously reduced with ease. But in the 
year after the evacuation of New York, bills 
of the Confederation for six hundred thousand 
dollars were protested in Holland, and the 
whole requirement of the Treasury for the year, 
which was four millions of dollars, was univer- 
sally felt to be a sum too large to demand, and 
which could not be collected. Taxation was 
resisted. State authority was defied, and the 
feeble and futile government of the Confedera- 
tion, a mummy clad in robes of state, without 
power and without consideration, was scorned 
abroad and contemned at home. 



17 

The times that tried men's souls in this coun- 
try were rather in 1786 than in 1776, for the 
colonial ability to win independence involved 
neither the righteousness of the cause nor the 
character of the people. The revolution had 
proved their valor, and had been successfully 
achieved. But the new situation tested their 
wisdom ; and without wisdom the revolution 
had been in vain. By the common exertion, 
sacrifice, and suffering, independence had been 
secured, the enemy had been expelled, and the 
younger England of the West had humbled the 
crowned and unnatural mother England upon 
the sea-girt throne. In this crucial moment 
neglect or ignorance of the obvious and indis- 
pensable means of securing the common safety, 
strength, and welfare, the apparent revelation 
of American incapacity to build a national 
American commonwealth might justly fill every 
generous and patriotic heart with dismay. 

Yet if any American despaired during the 
gloomy years from 1783 to 1787, and doubted 
whether the men were equal to the task, so 
had John Adams doubted and despaired on the 
very eve of the assembly of the Continental 
Congress. "We have not men fit for the 
times," he exclaimed ; " we are deficient in 
3 



genius, in education, in travel, in fortune, in 
everything." But scarcely had he spoken when 
he hastened to take his part in that immortal 
assembly, and to do the very thing that he 
feared no man was strong enough to do. Well 
did Jefferson call him the Colossus, for upon 
his mighty and indomitable will he lifted the 
country to the Declaration of Independence. 
Why then doubt, since independence had been 
achieved, that national union was possible ? The 
leaders of the revolution, the chiefs of the 
Continental Congress, still lived. Age had not 
dimmed their eyes, nor chilled their hearts, nor 
withered their faculties. The work they had 
begun, surely they were ready to complete, and 
the men who had made the English Colonies 
American States were wise enough and strong 
enough to bind the American States into a 
nation. 

Nay, even doubt was treachery. For still he 
lived — in the prime of glorious manhood he still 
lived — whose faith, and constancy, and courage, 
when patriotism despaired and hope expired, 
had moved before his struggling country a pillar 
of cloud by day, of fire by night. To think of the 
revolution is to see him. The whole scene is 
radiant with his presence and his power. He 



19 

was, indeed, but one patriot among patriots, and 
an ardent and general patriotism it was that 
marshaled Minute Men and enrolled Sons of 
Liberty. It was a sublime popular daring that 
defied the British empire and made good its 
defiance. Doubtless the American revolution 
was the work of the people, but it seems the 
work of a man. How can we conceive its heroic 
prosecution, its triumphant issue, without its 
leader? Had he fallen at Trenton; had he 
been captured by Clinton; had intrigues of 
selfish ambition prevailed against him ; had he 
not nerved — he alone — the hesitating army at 
Newburgh, who dare doubt that the vision of 
the "one far off, divine event" that drew the 
country through the war, would still have been 
fulfilled ? But what American does not know, 
and proudly own, that the perpetual and inspir- 
ing assurance of that event, the cheer of the 
weary march, the joy of the victory, the confi- 
dence of Congress, the pride and hope of Amer- 
ica, was the character of Washington ? 

No voice for a powerful Union was earlier or 
stronger or more constant than his. The fervor 
of his conviction kindled the faith of the coun- 
try. Samuel Adams might hesitate, and Patrick 
Henry doubt, but Washington was sure. Union 



20 

alone had won independence, union alone could 
secure it. Without union there was no com- 
mon revenue, no common regulation of com- 
merce, no settlement of common territory, no 
common bond between adjacent States. Instead 
of these, there were discord, anarchy, and sub- 
jugation. 

Indeed, they were already at hand. While 
England refused to relinquish the western forts, 
and contemptuously demanded of John Adams 
some security that the separate States would 
not nullify the decrees of the Confederation, while 
Europe awaited disdainfully the dissolution 
of a loose and jarring league, the States 
themselves, pinched with poverty, jealous of 
Congress, withheld their contributions to the 
common treasury, and encountered from their 
own citizens armed defiance of their own au- 
thority. The situation was intolerable. Law- 
lessness and license, masquerading as liberty 
and independence, threatened the rural repub- 
licans as the leering satyrs in the fable deluded 
the simple shepherds of the plain. But the high 
destiny of the English-speaking race was not 
to be thwarted. The ancient traditions of that 
people, whose political genius is strong common 
sense, are not of liberty only, but of constitu- 



21 

tional liberty, and of a sagacity and skill which 
secure and perpetuate that liberty in adequate 
and flexible institutions. Devotion to liberty 
and loyalty to law, proceeding with equal step, 
have together led the race of which Washington 
is the consummate flower from the gloom of 
the ancient German forest to the imperial 
splendor of England and the republican glory 
of the United States. But the children of 
liberty are wise in their generation. There 
were American States after the revolution, and 
there were constitutions of States. But there 
was no common constitution, no common guar- 
antee both of the rights of States and the liber- 
ties of the citizens ; and, in the midst of States 
and constitutions, State authority, and individ- 
ual liberty, and the general welfare itself, were 
perishing. 

Then, as in the passionate excitement but 
uncertain movement of the early revolution, a 
paper passed mysteriously from patriotic hand 
to hand, firing every patriotic heart with the 
magic motto, ''Join or die'\- so, in the air 
now electric with national feeling, " Join or 
die " became the burden of the mighty chorus 
that rolled from out the heart of the people. 
It was resistless, like the demand for Indepen- 



22 

dence ten years before. The convention as- 
sembled. Washington, the good genius of 
union, presided. Wise and heroic patriots 
framed the Constitution and submitted it to the 
people. For ten months the land shook with 
the great debate upon its ratification, and it 
was the conclusive argument for the Constitu- 
tion that Washington would be the first Presi- 
dent. In this very street Alexander Hamilton 
met John Lamb, the ardent leader of the Sons 
of Liberty, who distrusted the new scheme of 
government, and argued with him that fear was 
folly, since Washington would be the President. 
" Good," replied Lamb, " for to no other mortal 
would I entrust authority so enormous." At 
length the decision of the people was recorded. 
Eleven of the thirteen States had solemnly 
adopted the Constitution, and in the jubilee of 
joy that followed, as of a people breaking a 
deadly spell, opposition was silenced, and the 
man who, like Moses, had led his country 
through the Red Sea of armed strife, was sum- 
moned by the instinctive love and perfect con- 
fidence of the whole people to perform the 
miracle for which they waited, and, like a 
greater than Moses, to stretch forth his hand 
and raise the dead frame of national union to life. 



23 

With that manly humility and modest simplic- 
ity which always invested his greatness, like 
the rosy hue that suffuses the awful summit of 
Mont Blanc, Washington writes in his diary, 
on the i6th of April, 1789: "About ten o'clock 
I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, 
and to domestic felicity, and, with a mind op- 
pressed with more anxious and painful sensa- 
tions than I have words to express, set out for 
New York, with the best disposition to render 
service to my country in obedience to its call, 
but with less hope of answering its expectation." 
From State to State, from town to town, along 
that triumphal way from Mount Vernon, the 
air murmured with benedictions as he passed. 
Under laureled arches and walking upon flowers, 
amid the music of bells, the thunder of cannon, 
the acclamations of the people, the singing of 
hymns, and the eloquence of votive addresses, 
Washington came at last to New York, and 
landed at the foot of this street, amid such joy- 
ous exultation as New York had never known. 
After a week had passed, the great object of his 
coming was to be accomplished, and on the 30th 
of April, 1789, the procession attending the 
President moved from his house on Franklin 
Square, through Pearl street to Broad, and 



24 

through Broad street to the spot upon which 
we are now assembled. 

Among the most imposing events in history- 
must always be accounted the simple ceremony 
which was transacted here. The human mind 
craves lofty figures for a memorable scene, and 
loves to decorate with fitting circumstance the 
fulfillment of great affairs. For this event all 
such conditions were satisfied. The scene was 
set with every ample preparation of historic 
significance and patriotic association, with the 
most eminent actors, with the most auspicious 
anticipation. For the occasion itself America 
offered no place more becoming, for no spot is 
more conspicuously, more honorably, or more 
closely identified than this with the history of 
American liberty. The scene around us is mar- 
velously changed, indeed, from its aspect in the 
colonial, the provincial, the revolutionary city. 
How transformed this street from the resort of 
fashion, the seat of the State Government, the 
modest residence of merchants, diplomatists, 
and statesmen, which was the Wall street of a 
century ago ! Then the social and political 
heart of a small and struggling community, it 
is now the financial nerve-centre of a continent. 
But if the vast competitions and contentions of 



25 

capital and enterprise which involve the pros- 
perity of states and nations have overlaid the 
plain scene of political strife with a field of cloth 
of gold, yet still the hallowed soil is here. The 
swarming street is but a picture painted over. 
Beneath the ever shifting characters of specu- 
lation and of eager trade, incessantly traced 
upon this pavement of the modern city, lies the 
undimmed and indelible patriotic record of old 
New York. 

The spot upon which we stand was the site 
of the second City Hall, which, for more than 
a hundred years, was the central seat of the 
active political life of the State and city. Faneuil 
Hall, in Boston, is justly called the cradle of the 
revolution, for it rocked the infant cry against 
ministerial injustice into the overwhelming 
chorus of freedom and independence. Carpen- 
ter's Hall, in Philadelphia, sheltered the Con- 
tinental Congress. In Philadelphia also, in the 
State House, the great debate upon indepen- 
dence proceeded, and there the great Declara- 
tion was signed. The titles of such monuments 
to renown and endless national gratitude no 
envy assails, no rivalry disputes. But the city 
of Hamilton, of Jay, of Livingston, of John 
Lamb, and Isaac Sears, and Gouverneur Morris, 
4 



26 

as it moved with equal step by its sister cities 
in the field, cherishes the historic sites of its 
own patriotic activity with the same reverence 
that it salutes those of its peers. 

Here, in 1735, the trial of John Zenger 
established the freedom of the American press, 
and declared the cardinal principle of its liberty, 
that the publication of the truth is not a libel. 
From the Assembly of New York, sitting in 
this place in 1 764, proceeded the protest against 
the Stamp Act, and here the Committees of Cor- 
respondence were appointed which combined 
and organized colonial action. In this ancient 
hall assembled the Stamp Act Congress, the 
first Congress of the United Colonies, whose 
clear and uncompromising voice announced 
the American purpose and foretold Amer- 
ican independence. It was a New York 
merchant, President of the Chamber of Com- 
merce, who wrote the address of the Con- 
gress to the House of Commons. They 
were New York merchants who, as the Con- 
gress adjourned, attested their high design by 
forming a league and covenant of non-importa- 
tion. It was to a New York merchant, as 
Mayor of the city, that the British Governor of 
the province and the commander of "the royal 



27 

forces surrendered the hated stamps, and to this 
spot they were brought in solemn procession, 
amid the shouts of rejoicing citizens. 

From the balcony of the hall that stood here 
the Declaration of Independence was first read 
to the citizens of New York, and, although the 
enemy's fleet had entered the harbor, the people 
as they listened tore down the royal arms from 
the walls of the hall and burned them in the 
street, as their fiery patriotism was about to 
consume the royal power in the province. Here 
sat the Continental Congress in its closing days, 
here John Adams was commissioned as the 
first American Minister to Great Britain, and 
here the Congress received Sir John Temple, 
the first British Consul-General to the United 
States. Here Jefferson was selected by Con- 
gress as Minister to France, and here Secretary 
Jay, with the same equable mind and clear com- 
prehension and unbending integrity that after- 
ward illustrated the first exercise of the judi- 
cial power of the Union, directed the foreign 
affairs of the Confederation. Here, also, 
when the Confederation disappeared, the first 
Congress of the Union assembled. Indeed, 
we are enveloped by inspiring memories and 
kindling local associations. Yonder, almost 



28 

within sound of my voice, still stands the 
ancient and famous inn where the Commander- 
in-Chief tenderly parted with his officers, and 
there, over the way, where once a modest man- 
sion stood, the Federalist was chiefly written. 
The very air about this hallowed spot is the air 
of American patriotism. To breathe it, charged 
with such memories, is to be inspired with the 
loftiest human purpose, to be strengthened for 
the noblest endeavor. By the most impressive 
associations, by the most dignified and impor- 
tant historic events, was this place dedicated to 
the illustrious transaction which we commemo- 
rate to-day. 

But the majesty of the event was not its 
circumstance ; it was its import. A people whose 
courage and endurance in the field, and whose 
capacity of local self-government, had been 
amply tested, was here to take its place as a 
united republic beside the ancient and power- 
ful monarchies of Christendom. It was to do 
this amid the scornful distrust of the world, and 
involved in domestic jealousies and vast and 
obscure internal perils. The hope of success 
lay apparently in one man, revered and beloved 
as no other man had ever been, and upon the 
successful issue of the trust to which he was 



59 

here solemnly devoted. What scene in human 
history transcends the grandeur and the signifi- 
cance of that consecration ? Gazing upon this 
sculptured form, and remembering that this 
was the very hour and this the place of the 
sublime event ; that here, under the benignant 
arch of heaven, Washington appeared to take 
the oath of his great office, — the air is hushed, 
even the joyous tumult of this glad day is 
stilled, the familiar scene fades from before 
our eyes, and our awed hearts whisper within 
us : " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, 
for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
ground." 

The streets, the windows, the roofs, were 
thronged with people, and, drowning my feeble 
voice, surely you can hear the vast and pro- 
longed shout that saluted the hero. Touched 
to the heart by the affectionate greeting, he 
advanced to the railing, and, placing his hand 
upon his breast, he bowed low, and then for a 
moment, overwhelmed by emotion, he stepped 
back and seated himself amid a sudden and 
solemn silence. Then he arose, and coming 
forward, his majestic and commanding frame 
stood upon the identical stone upon which I 
stand at this moment, and which, fixed fast 



30 

here beneath the statue, will remain, in the 
eyes of all men, an imperishable memorial 
of the scene. Near Washington were John 
Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Roger Sherman, 
Chancellor Livingston, General Knox, General 
Sinclair, Baron Steuben, and other famous men. 
The Chancellor, in his robes, solemnly recited the 
words of the oath. The Secretary of the Senate 
raised the Bible. Washington bent low, and 
audibly saying, "I swear, so help me God!" 
reverently kissed the book. " It is done," cried 
the Chancellor, " Long live George Washing- 
ton, President of the United States ! " " Long 
live George Washington ! " shouted the people 
in one resounding cry of exultation. " Long 
live George Washington," rang all the bells and 
roared all the cannon of a continent. " Long 
live George Washington," echoed every heart 
and voice in the world that pleaded and beat 
for liberty. And now, after a hundred years 
have passed, more reverently, more universally, 
more gratefully, than ever, in all civilized lands 
in which the greatness of his example has 
exalted the estimate of human character and 
the standard of human conduct, every people 
fervently prolongs the prayer, *' Long live 
George Washington ! " 



31 

The task upon which he entered here was 
infinitely greater than that which he undertook 
when, fourteen years before, he drew his sword 
under the elm at Cambridge as Commander- 
in-Chief of the Continental army. To lead a 
people in revolution wisely and successfully, 
without ambition and without a crime, demands, 
indeed, lofty genius and unbending virtue. But 
to build their State, — amid the angry conflict 
of passion and prejudice and unreasonable 
apprehension, the incredulity of many, and the 
grave doubt of all, to organize for them and 
peacefully to inaugurate a complete and satisfac- 
tory government, — this is the greatest service 
that a man can render to mankind. But this, 
also, is the glory of Washington. The power of 
his personal character, his penetrating foresight, 
and the wisdom of his judgment, in composing 
the myriad elements that threatened to over- 
whelm the mighty undertaking, are all unpar- 
alleled. " Nothing but harmony, honesty, in- 
dustry, and frugality," he said to Lafayette, 
" are necessary to make us a great and happy 
people." But he was not a man of phrases, 
nor did he suppose that government could be 
established or maintained by lofty professions 
of virtue. No man's perception of the indis- 



32 

pensability of great principles to the successful 
conduct of great affairs was ever more un- 
clouded than his, but no man had ever learned 
by a more prolonged or arduous experience 
that infinite patience, sagacity, forbearance, and 
wise concession must attend inflexible principle, 
if great affairs are to be greatly administered. 
His countrymen are charged with fond idolatry 
of his memory, and his greatness is pleasantly 
depreciated as a mythologic exaggeration. But 
no church ever canonized a saint more worthily 
than he is canonized by the national affection, 
and to no ancient hero, benefactor, or lawgiver, 
were divine honors .ever so justly decreed as to 
Washington the homage of the world. 

With the sure sagacity of a leader of men, 
he selected at once, for the highest and most 
responsible stations, the three chief Americans 
who represented the three forces in the nation 
which alone could command success in the 
institution of the government. Hamilton was 
the head, Jefferson was the heart, and John Jay 
was the conscience. Washington's just and 
serene ascendency was the lambent flame in 
which these beneficent powers were fused ; and 
nothing less than that ascendency could have 
ridden the whirlwind and directed the storm that 



33 

burst around him. Party spirit blazed into fury ; 
John Jay was hung in effigy ; Hamilton was 
stoned; insurrection raised its head in the 
West; Washington himself was denounced; 
and suddenly the French Revolution, the ghastly 
spectre rising from delirium and despair, the 
avenging fury of intolerable oppression, at once 
hopeful and heart-rending, seized modern civil- 
ization, shook Europe to the centre, divided the 
sympathy of America, and, as the child of 
liberty, appealed to Washington. But the great 
soul, amidst battle, and defeat, and long retreat, 
and the sinking heart of a people, undismayed, 
was not appalled by the convulsion of the 
world. Amidst the uproar of Christendom he 
knew liberty too well to be deluded by its 
mad pretence. Without a beacon, without a 
chart, but with unwavering eye and steady 
hand, he guided his country safe through dark- 
ness and through storm. In the angry shock 
of domestic parties, "there is but one character 
which keeps them in awe," wrote Edmund 
Randolph. " The foundations of the moral 
world," said a wise teacher in Cambridge 
University, bidding young Englishmen mark 
the matchless man, — "the foundations of the 
moral world were shaken, but not the under- 
S 



34 

standing of Washington." He held his stead- 
fast way, Hke the sun across the firmament, 
giving life, and health, and strength, to the 
new nation ; and upon a searching survey of 
his administration, which established the fun- 
damental principles of American policy in every 
department of the Government, there is no 
great act which his country would annul, no 
word spoken, no line written, no deed done 
by him, which justice would reverse or wisdom 
deplore. 

Fellow-citizens, the solemn dedication of 
Washington to this august and triumphant 
task is the event which this statue will com- 
memorate to unborn generations. Elsewhere, 
in bronze and marble, and upon glowing can- 
vas, genius has delighted to invest with the 
immortality of art the best-beloved and most 
familiar of American figures. The surveyor 
of the Virginia wilderness, the leader of the 
revolution, the president, the man, are known 
of all men ; they are everywhere beheld and 
revered. But here, at last, upon the scene of 
the crowning event of his life, and of his 
country's life, — here, in the throbbing heart of 
the great city, where it will be daily seen by 
countless thousands ; here in the presence of 



35 

the President of the United States, of the 
Governor of New York, of the official authori- 
ties of other States, of the organized body of 
New York merchants who, as in other years 
they have led the city in so many patriotic 
deeds upon this spot, lead now in this com- 
memoration of the greatest ; and finally, of this 
vast and approving concourse of American 
citizens, we raise this calm and admonishing 
form. Its majestic repose shall charm and 
subdue the multitudinous life that heaves and 
murmurs around it, and as the moon draws the 
swaying tides of ocean, its lofty serenity shall 
lift the hurrying throng to unselfish thoughts, 
to generous patriotism, to a nobler life. Here 
descended upon our fathers the benediction of 
the personal presence of Washington. Here 
may the moral grandeur of his character and 
his life inspire our children's children forever! 




